For 50 years, “Citizen Kane” has sat alone as the greatest film of all time, much like its title character locked away in a giant palace, untouched.
Now, a giant has toppled.
Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” has bested “Citizen Kane” as the number one film ever made in the Sight and Sound Poll, a list organized by Sight and Sound magazine and voted on by critics and writers from around the world.
Roger Ebert calls the list essentially the only film poll that matters, and it is such because it has been conducted every 10 years since 1952 and surveys the best of the best in film.
Citizen Kane has been number 1 since 1962 when it overcame Vittorio De Sica’s “Bicycle Thieves,” the reigning champ from 10 years prior. Since then, “Vertigo” has been on every list since 1972, climbing to as high as number 2 in 2002. This year, “Vertigo” received 191 votes from its 847 participants, dwarfing “Kane’s” 151.
This year’s full list is as follows.
- “Vertigo” – Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
- “Citizen Kane” – Orson Welles, 1941
- “Tokyo Story” – Yasujiro Ozu, 1953
- “The Rules of the Game” – Jean Renoir, 1939
- “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” – F.W. Murnau, 1927
- “2001: A Space Odyssey” – Stanley Kubrick, 1968
- “The Searchers” – John Ford, 1956
- “Man With a Movie Camera” – Dziga Vertov, 1929
- “The Passion of Joan of Arc” – Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1927
- “8 1/2” – Federico Fellini, 1963
New on the list since 2002 are “The Passion of Joan of Arc” and “Man With a Movie Camera,” both silent films, and the latter, a documentary of sorts. The final new film on the list is “The Searchers,” which was the 11th place runner up in 2002 along with “Seven Samurai.” The most recent film is “2001: A Space Odyssey” and half of the films are foreign. Absent from the list of 10 from 2002 are “The Godfather Part I and II,” “Singin’ in the Rain” and another Russian silent film, “The Battleship Potemkin.” The reason for “The Godfather’s” plummet (Part 1 now at 21 and Part II now at 31) is that films could no longer be voted for as a grouping. Together, both parts of Francis Ford Coppola’s saga were ranked 4 on the Sight and Sound list, but separate, it’s likely that critics decided to choose neither than choose between them.
For “Vertigo” to top “Citizen Kane” shows a change in the values of critics today. “Citizen Kane” was an individual achievement, with Welles directing, writing, starring and producing, but it is not personal or autobiographical. “Vertigo” is fully Alfred Hitchcock’s vision, not only embodying his style but also his fears, fantasies and inhibitions. In a day and age when directorial integrity is more significant than technical innovation, a film that encapsulates everything an artist represents is something to be treasured most of all.
BFI’s full list of 50 films in the 2012 poll can be found here, complete with blurbs for the top 10. Some other gems on this list are the inclusion of two films from the 2000s, War Kong Wai’s “In the Mood for Love” at 24 and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” at 28. Sight and Sound will publish all the participants votes and rationales along with a full list of all the titles voted for on August 15, and the full list of directors’ votes will be published a week later.
Right now, here are the Top 10 directors films, which also provided a shake up for “Citizen Kane.”
- “Tokyo Story” – Yasujiro Ozu, 1953
- “Citizen Kane” – Orson Welles, 1941
- “2001: A Space Odyssey” – Stanley Kubrick, 1968 (actually tied at #2)
- “8 1/2” – Federico Fellini, 1963
- “Taxi Driver” – Martin Scorsese, 1980
- “Apocalypse Now” – Francis Ford Coppola, 1979
- “The Godfather” – Francis Ford Coppola, 1972
- “Vertigo” – Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 (actually tied at #7)
- “Mirror” – Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974
- “Bicycle Thieves” – Vittorio De Sica, 1948
And here is the link to Sight and Sound’s full archives of the 2002 list and every 10 year poll prior.
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